Jack’s Winning Words 9/10/13
“Don’t give up before the miracle happens.”  (Fannie Flagg)  I recently read Zealot, a best-seller about Jesus, the person.  It references other miracle workers in biblical times, comparing them to Jesus.  What do we pray for when we pray for a miracle?  I simply want God to know my feelings and to work his “will.”  Sometimes the “miracle” happens in a totally unexpected way.  Are you looking for a particular miracle?    ;-)  Jack

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  I think it is a miracle that God loves me.   After that, everything falls into place. ====JACK:  Have you heard the song, "Jesus knows me, this I love"?

 FROM TARMART REV:  "God knowing my feelings of love, adoration and deep respect for Him and to be faithful in working out His will for my life.”  I like that, Jack . . . it takes us Pentecostal preachers longer and having to preach faster to get it all in because we haven't learned to be as precise as you good Lutherans do in getting our points across.====JACK:  I like the fact that there are different "kinds" of churches.  Some people like McDonald's, some Burger King, some the London Chop House.

 FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  Today's quote and your question remind me that prayer is so often corresponded to petition. I prefer to think of my prayer as more conversational. Prayer keeps the relationship at the forefront of my consciousness; it is an ongoing manner of friendship. Prayer is a miracle in this way -- that Jesus walks with me wherever I go, even waiting for me when I forget and leave Him (sin). He is there when I return. I think this is the miracle.====JACK:  When I used to teach confirmations students about prayer, I would set an empty chair in front of a student and ask them to picture Jesus sitting there.  Now, talk with Jesus and tell him what's on your mind.  It helped develop conversational prayer.

 FROM LBP IN PLYMOUTH:   I simply want God to know my feelings and to work his “will.”  I once prayed that God would be merciful and take away the suffering of a person so injured that only minimal recovery could be expected. As i saw it a lifetime of suffering lay ahead for him and his family. But as you taught us so many years ago I ended the prayer with  "but I ask this only if it is your will". This person received almost perfect healing and has been well for over 7 years now. It was a true miracle in every sense of the word. I was and continue to be forever grateful (and humbled).====JACK:  I feel uncomfortable and inadequate in giving orders to God.  I know that there are "believers" who pray in a different way than I do.  Is there a right way, or a wrong one?  "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is good enough for me.

 FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Like your miracle very much. I also want God to know my feelings and to work his "will". Much of the time, I'm praying for God to lead some other significant person in my life to know and understand my feelings--I'm the kind of person who takes responsibility for all kinds of things which may actually be someone else's "stuff", like I'm the cause of everything bad. That's why I identify with a guy like Luther so much--the beginning of his relationship to God and appreciate so much of what he wrote as he sorted it all out. There's a guy in our Bible study right now who is "sorting things out" and I eagerly await a miracle of faith happening as the year progresses.====JACK:  Loretta Lynn sang this song which seems to relate to your style of prayer.
Now let us have a little talk with Jesus
Let us tell him all about our troubles
He will hear our faintest cry
And we will answer by and by

 FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  Great advice. I am experiencing a lot of really welcome "minor miracles" in my life right now. Not spectacular things but things that affirm I am on the right path.====JACK:  For me, each day is an experiment, because no day is exactly the same as any that have gone before.

 FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Pray like everything depends upon you, and live your life like everything depends upon you.  BTW what did you think about Zealot.  I have the book but haven't gotten into it yet .  Going back to yesterday, i am afraid of alligators.  One of my neighbors had one under her car in the driveway last summer, and my next door neighbor had one in her back yard this summer.  We all have fenced yards, of course.====JACK:  I saw the author of Zealot interviewed on The Daily Show.  The book is as advertised, a look at the life of Jesus historically and not necessarily though the eyes of a believer (or non-believer).  If you happen to find a gator under your car, pray....and run as fast as you can.

 FROM PH IN MINNESOTA:  your whole life is a miracle.  and mine too. we are flying to Vienna on sat. to spend 12 days on a river cruise (Rhein and Danube) to end up in Amsterdam.  should be fun. ====JACK:  Do miracles really happen?  Does life really exist?  Is this all a dream?  What about hyperreality?  These are the questions that philosophers ask?  You can ponder them while on your cruise.

FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  Thanks. I needed that.====JACK:  A slap in the face, or a pat pat on the head?.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  I guess nothing scares me at the moment. Maybe I am just naive.====JACK:  How about when one of those Gulf hurricanes comes bearing down on you?  I'd be scared!

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Good message! I've prayed one prayer for years, now, with now "miracle" but haven't given up yet!   So thankful for all the miracles that HAVE happened, though, like the prayer healing for my 3rd son when he was two yrs. old. Drs could find no cause for his internal bleeding, and he was put on a strict diet, different meds, etc. and finally slated for  exploratory surgery at Children's Hospital in Chicago.  We called in friends and fellow pastors  and wives to prayer for healing, as God knew what the trouble was....! When we took him that week for his exam, the bleeding had stopped, and never returned.  He is a successful pastor today. That is just one! Never Give Up!====JACK:  Although Churchill said it during the dark days of WW 2, his words are appropriate with regard to your son's miraculous healing..."NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!"